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THE   HISTORY  TEACHER'S  MAGAZINE 


The  Importance  of  the  Agricultural  Revolution 

BY  PROFESSOR  RAYMOND  G.  TAYLOR,  KANSAS  STATE  AGRICULTURAL  COLLEGE. 


It  is  almost  a  commonplace  in  these  days  to  say 
that  the  roots  of  our  modern  complex  social  and  politi- 
cal life  lie  somewhere  close  to  the  great  mechanical 
changes  wrought  in  eighteenth  century  England.  The 
fact  that  there  was  an  agricultural  revolution  in  Eng- 
land, vitally  related  to  the  more  familiar  industrial 
revolution,  and  to  our  own  progress,  has  received  but 
scant  notice  from  American  students.  To  a  certain 
extent  all  agricultural  history  has  been  treated  in  a 
more  or  less  perfunctory,  detached  way,  but  nowhere 
else  so  much  as  in  the  case  of  the  agricultural  revolu- 
tion. At  best  this  is  a  seriou.s  oversight.  Any  ac- 
count of  industry,  or  of  national  life,  that  does  not 
include  agricultural  development  as  a  vital  part  of  an 
integrated  whole  is  incomplete  and  misleading.  To 
quote  one  of  our  early  societies :  "  The  interests  of 
Commerce,  Arts,  and  Manufactures  form,  with  Agri- 
culture, an  indissoluble  union,  to  which  citizens  of 
every  class  and  calling,  have  it  amply  in  their  power 
to  contribute."-'^ 

The  great  changes  in  English  agriculture  became 
noticeable .  early  in  the  eighteenth  century.  They 
were  not  completed  until  well  into  the  nineteenth, 
long  after  the  factory  system  was  established.  Scien- 
tific tillage,  new  root  crops  and  artificial  grasses,  ro- 
tation of  crops,  improved  live  stock  and  enclosures  by 
Parliamentary  act,  all  helped  to  make  the  existence 
of  the  small  farmer  untenable  and  fit  England  to  sup- 
ply her  swelling  industrial  cities  with  food  for  work- 
ers and  raw  material  for  power-driven  machines.  In 
turn  the  increased  demands  from  the  cities  acceler- 
ated the  agricultural  changes,  as  did  also  the  canals 
and  turnpikes  being  built  all  over  England.  More- 
over the  awakened  mechanical  genius  of  England  con- 
tributed directly  to  the  new  agriculture.  Long  be- 
fore the  mechanical  revolution,  farmers  were  demand- 
ing better  agricultural  implements  and  more  of  them.^ 
Now  the  response  came  in  the  form  of  plows,  drills, 
rakes,  mowing  and  threshing  machines,  scarifiers, 
chaff-cutters  and  other  tools. ^  A  world  war  and  the 
corn  laws  following  hard  on  the  heels  of  the  indus- 
trial revolution  completed  the  agricultural  monopoly. 

The  stories  of  Hargreaves,  Crompton,  Arkwright, 
Cartwright,  Watt,  Bolton,  Brindley,  Macadam  and 
Telford,  and  their  great  improvements  in  manufac- 
turing and  transportation  are  familiar  to  all  students. 
Somewhat  less  so,  but  still  available,  are  the  records 
of  Lord  Townshend  and  his  turnips,  Jethro  Tull  and 
"  horse-hoeing,"  Robert  Bakewell  and  his  "  New  Lei- 
cester "  sheep,  and  Arthur  Young,  the  universal  ob- 
server and  recorder  of  agricultural  knowledge.     The 

1  Philadelphia  Society  for  Promoting  Agriculture,  Mem- 
oirs, I,  iv. 

2  Baker,  John  Wynn,  Short  Description  and  List  ...  of 
the  Instruments  of  Husbandry.  .  .  .  Dublin,  1769,  p.  2. 

s  Prothero,  R.  E.,  English  Farming,  Past  and  Present,  208. 


connection  between  the  two  great  interests  is  found  in 
the  formation  of  various  societies,  scientific  first  and 
later  agricultural.  The  Society  for  the  Encourage- 
ment of  Arts,  Manufactures  and  Commerce  was  in- 
stituted at  London  in  1754.  The  first  volume  of  its 
transactions  appeared  in  1783.  Until  that  time  its 
chief  activity  had  been  the  offering  of  money  prizes 
and  medals  for  improvements  in  many  lines  ranging 
from  agriculture  to  colonial  policies.  During  this 
interval  the  society  had  given  more  than  three  thou- 
sand pomids  in  cash  and  seventy-two  gold  and  thirty- 
one  silver  medals  for  improvements  in  agriculture 
alone.*  It  is  further  noteworthy  that,  until  the  close 
of  the  century,  rather  more  than  half  of  each  annual 
volume  of  its  transactions  was  devoted  to  agriculture. 
Members  of  the  Royal  Society  were  glad  to  contribute 
to  the  proceedings  of  this  industrial  society,  its  presi- 
dent. Sir  Joseph  Banks,  for  instance,  offering  so  prac- 
tical a  thing  as  a  cure  for  scab  in  sheep.  The  pro- 
ceedings of  the  Royal  Society,  itself,  were  still  closely 
restricted  to  "  pure  science."  However,  local  so- 
cieties patterned  after  the  older  society  were  formed, 
especially  in  the  industrial  centers  of  the  west  of  Eng- 
land, and  these  responded  to  the  new  spirit  of  Eng- 
land. Their  membership  included  a  strong  represen- 
tation from  the  Royal  Society  and  a  great  number  of 
the  leaders  in  industrial  life.  The  work  of  the  so- 
cieties at  Birmingham  and  Manchester  was  colored  by 
their  environment,  and  applied  or  industrial  science 
as  involved  in  manufactures  and  transportation  and 
in  agriculture  as  well,  found  able  treatment  in  their 
proceedings.^ 

Beginning  with  the  Bath  and  West  of  England  So- 
ciety in  1777  and  the  Highland  Society  in  1784,  many 
purely  agricultural  organizations  were  formed.  The 
last  decade  of  the  century  saw  a  tremendous  impetus 
given  to  the  study  of  agricultural  problems.  The 
increasing  interest  is  clearly  indicated  by  the  swelling 
flood  of  agricultural  books  of  many  degrees  of  worth 
that  appeared.  Some  of  these  came  from  the  pens 
of  able  men  who  had  given  years  to  the  study  of  prac- 
tical agriculture  on  their  great  estates ;  some  were 
evolved  from  the  brains  of  pedantic  theorists  far  re- 
moved from  the  soil.  Local  societies  were  multiplied 
all  over  the  British  Isles.  Pattern  or  experimental 
farms  were  established  in  some  of  the  counties.  One 
of  the  great  leaders  in  this  awakening  was  Sir  John 
Sinclair,  as  a  result  of  whose  activities  the  Board  of 
Agriculture  was  incorporated  in  1793.^  The  surveys 
made  by  the  Board  and  the  communications  addressed 

■4  Transactions  of  the  Society  ...  of  Arts,  Manufactures 
and  Commerce,  Vol.  I,  pp.  3-5. 

5  Literary  and  Philosophical  Society  of  Manchester,  Mem- 
oirs, I-III. 

6  Communications  to  the  Board  of  Agriculture,  I,  preface. 
Philadelphia  Society,  I,  pp.  xxix-xxx. 


THE    HISTORY   TEACHER'S   MAGAZINE 


to  it  in  response  to  its  many  inquiries  are  the  basis 
for  much  of  the  present  insight  into  agricultural  con- 
ditions of  the  time.  The  Smithfield  Club  organized 
in  1798  perpetuated  the  work  of  the  old  Smithfield 
Fair  in  the  improvement  and  increase  of  live  stock 
and  made  a  national  standard  for  local  breeders  and 
clubs.  Prizes  offered  by  all  of  these  societies  en- 
couraged progress  in  every  form  of  agricultural  activ- 
ity, so  that  even  the  laborers  on  the  farms  felt  the 
stimulus  in  the  new  movement.  In  all  this  the  leaders 
and  exponents  of  the  industrial  revolution  were  found 
working  along  with  the  landed  aristocracy  whose  in- 
terests were  so  much  at  stake. 

England's  selfish  policy  and  the  agricultural  oppor- 
tunities in  this  country  combined  to  keep  back  the 
manufacturing  revolution  until  the  Napoleonic  wars 
forced  its  growth.  But  it  was  otherwise  with  the 
agricultural  revolution.  Some  of  this  was  native  to 
American  soil^  some  of  it  was  imported.  Men  of 
wealth  and  intelligence  owned  many  of  the  great 
farms  in  a  country  almost  entirely  given  to  agricul- 
ture. The  failing  soil  of  some  of  the  older  sections 
was  already  forcing  these  able  men  to  look  about  for 
remedies.  The  leaders  in  commercial  life  in  our 
cities,  even  in  the  days  of  the  Revolution,  saw  that 
American  farming  was  in  a  bad  way,  and  began  to 
work  for  betterment.'  Besides,  there  was  no  Eng- 
lish embargo  on  the  export  of  agricultural  ideas. 
Washington  at  Mt.  Vernon  carried  on  serious  experi- 
ments in  crop  rotation  and  marling  the  soil  of  the 
wornout  Virginia  hills.  He  corresponded  freely  with 
Arthur  Young  and  even  contemplated  bringing  Eng- 
lish experts  over  to  handle  his  farms. ^  The  books  of 
Young  and  other  British  writers  on  agriculture  found 
a  prominent  place  in  his  library  at  Mount  Vernon. 
This  was  but  a  conspicuous  example.  Spinning  mules 
and  power  looms  might  not  be  imported  from  Eng- 
land, but  seeds,  plants,  and,  in  some  cases,  improved 
live  stock,  and  best  of  all  agricultural  knowledge  came 
freely. 

Local  agricultural  societies  were  formed  in  Amer- 
ica almost  contemporaneously  with  the  early  ones  in 
England.  The  Charleston,  South  Carolina,  society 
was  founded  in  1784.     It  was  the  first  to  propose  an 

7  Philadelphia  Society,  I,  pp.  i-ii. 

s  Haworth,  Paul  Leland.     George  Washington,  Farmer. 
Professor  W.  C.  Abbott,  in  "  Some  Unpublished  Washing- 
ton Letters,"  in  the  "Nation"    (New  York),  vol.   65,  pp. 
219-221,  gives  practically  all  that  is  known  of  James  Blox- 
ham  whom   Washington   secured   from  William  Peacy,  of 
Gloucestershire,  England,  to  act  as  farm  manager  at  Mount 
Vernon.     He  served  from  May,   1786,  to  June,   1790.     His 
quaint  observations  on  the  crude  conditions  of  farming  in 
America,  his  fear  that  the  negro  slaves  might  poison  him, 
and  his  request  for  a  "  Light  an  Deasent  plow  "  and  some 
"  Sanfine "  seed  from  England  throw  an  interesting  side- 
light on  American  agriculture  and  its  English  connections. 
On  page  298  of  the  same  volume  of  the  "  Nation,"  Mary  S. 
Beall  publishes  the  original  articles  of  agreement  between 
■^      Washington  and  Bloxham.     Curiously  enough,  Haworth  and 
j^     other  writers  on  Washington  seem  to  have  overlooked  this 
—      unique  item,  though  it  was  in  print  nearly  twenty  years 
"i"  ago. 


experimental  farm.  The  Philadelphia  Society  for 
Promoting  Agriculture  was  formed  in  1785  "by  some 
citizens,  only  a  few  of  whom  were  actually  engaged 
in  husbandry,  but  who  were  convinced  of  its  neces- 
sity." After  meeting  more  or  less  regularly  for  a 
few  years  its  effects  culminated  in  1794  in  a  plan 
submitted  to  the  legislature  for  the  incorporation  of 
a  state  society.  When  this  failed  interest  lapsed  and 
nothing  more  was  heard  of  the  society  until  it  was  re- 
vived in  the  winter  of  1804."  The  New  York  Society 
for  the  Promotion  of  Agricultural  Arts  and  Manufac- 
tures was  created  in  1791  and  published  a  volume  of 
its  proceedings  the  next  year.  The  Massachusetts 
Society  for  Promoting  Agriculture  was  incorporated 
in  March,  1792,  and  its  work  though  fitful  was  con- 
tinuous thereafter.  The  Connecticut  organization  of 
the  same  name  was  started  in  1794  and  eight  years 
later  was  able  to  publish  its  accumulated  "  Transac- 
tions "  in  a  pamphlet  of  twenty-one  pages.  These 
early  societies  offered  premiums  for  experiments  in 
wheat  culture,  discovery  of  new  fertilizers,  recovery 
of  wornout  fields,  improving  wild  lands,  feeding  cows 
and  ewes  for  milk  production  and  destruction  of  in- 
sect pests — in  Massachusetts  the  canker  worm.  The 
Philadelphia  list  included  live  stock  and  dressed  meats 
as  well  as  dairy  products.  The  Massachusetts  list 
included  wool  clips  and  the  best  and  most  expeditious 
method  of  making  maple  sugar. ^^  Olive  oil,  hops  and 
vine  products  appeared  on  the  Charleston  list.  The 
lists  show  familiarity  with  the  lists  of  the  London  So- 
ciety of  Arts  and  the  English  agricultural  societies. 
The  Philadelphia  plan  of  1794  proposed  a  scheme  of 
agricultural  education,  including  endowed  chairs  .Ln 
the  University  of  Pennsylvania  and  Dickinson  Col- 
lege, and  the  teaching  of  agriculture  in  the  county  and 
township  schools  with  the  co-operation  of  the  county 
societies  which  the  plan  contemplated.  In  its  expo- 
sition of  the  wisdom  and  feasibility  of  this  "  new  edu- 
cation "  this  plan  anticipates  most  of  the  favorite 
arguments  of  present-day  advocates  of  vocational  edu- 
cation.^'^ The  Massachusetts  Society  began  some  oc- 
casional publications  at  a  very  early  date.  Copious 
extracts  from  the  proceedings  of  the  Bath,  Burling- 
ton and  Halifax  societies  were  reprinted  showing 
again  the  guiding  influence  of  English  agricultural 
thought.^^  The  membership  in  these  early  societies 
was  marked  by  the  presence  of  all  the  prominent 
leaders  in  public  life,  commerce  and  industry,  in  the 
respective  communities.  Washington  and  Franklin 
belonged  to  the  Philadelphia  Society.  John  and 
Samuel  Adams,  John  Hancock,  Fisher  Ames,  Josiah 
Quincy  and  Samuel  Pomeroy  were  members  of  the 
Massachusetts  organization.  Nor  was  the  constitu- 
ency purely  local.  The  lists  of  honorable  members 
included  many  in  neighboring  and  distant  states  of  the 
union  and  not  a  few  in  England.     Arthur  Young  and 

0  Philadelphia  Society,  Memoirs,  I,  Preface. 

10  Ibid,   pp.   xxxi-xxxv.    Massachusetts    Society,   Papers, 
Vol.  I,  pp.  13-15. 

11  Philadelphia  Society,  I,  pp.  xxiii-xxv. 

12  Massachusetts  Society;  Papers,  I,  passim. 


344^ 


THE    HISTORY    TEACHER'S   MAGAZINE 


other  leaders  on  the  other  side  were  honorary  mem- 
bers of  the  American  societies.  President  Samuel 
Deane^  of  Bowdoin  College,  a  member  of  the  Massa- 
chusetts Society  from  its  beginning,  in  1790  brought 
out  his  "  New  England  Farmer  or  Georgical  Diction- 
ary, containing  a  Compendious  Account  of  the  Ways 
and  Means  in  which  the  Important  Art  of  Husbandry, 
in  all  its  various  branches,  is,  or  may  be,  practiced  to 
the  greatest  advantage  in  this  country."  The  work 
reached  its  second  edition  in  1797.  In  method  and 
matter  it  shows  clearly  the  influence  of  the  current 
English  agricultural  literature.  J.  R.  Bordley,  a 
Philadeljjhia  business  man  and  member  of  the  agri- 
cultural society,  who  had  retired  to  a  farm  in  Mary- 
land, in  1799  published  "  Essays  and  Notes  on  Hus- 
bandry and  Rural  Affairs."  It  is  confessedly  based 
on  the  work  of  Tull  and  Young  supplemented  by  his 
own  observations  and  experiments.  Bordley  seems 
to  have  been  moved  to  publish  this  book  because  of 
the  failure  of  the  early  Philadelphia  society  to  which 
he  had  looked  hopefully  for  much  help.  Even  the 
American  Philosophical  Society,  founded  at  Philadel- 
phia before  the  Revolution,  admitted  to  its  transac- 
tions many  contributions  to  agricultural  knowledge. ^^ 

What  has  been  said  of  the  universal  appeal  of  the 
agricultural  awakening  in  America,  of  its  connection 
with  the  English  movement,  and  of  its  intimate  con- 
nection with  industry  in  general  is  even  truer  during 
the  early  decades  of  the  nineteenth  century,  the  period 
of  the  "  domestication  of  the  factory  system."  Few, 
if  any,  of  our  leaders  in  public  life  were  out  of  touch 
with  things  rural  and  agricultural.  Most  of  them 
were  direct  products  of  plantation  and  farm  life  and 
keenly  alive  to  its  needs.  Jefferson  and  Madison  in 
their  old  age  corresponded  with  each  other  and  with 
New  and  Old  World  friends  on  matters  of  agriculture. 
Even  the  questions  of  agricultural  economics  pre- 
sented in  the  great  Roman  classics  were  of  vital  in- 
terest to  them.  Henry  Clay,  the  sponsor  for  the 
American  System  and  the  Bank  of  the  United  States, 
imported  Hereford  cattle.  Instances  such  as  these 
might  be  multiplied.  Even  educational  institutions 
responded  somewhat  to  the  call,  though  in  no  such 
way  as  the  Philadelphia  Society  had  hoped  in  1794. 
A  professorship  in  chemistry  and  mineralogy  as  ap- 
plied to  agriculture  was  created  in  the  University  of 
Pennsylvania  early  in  the  century.  This  institution 
and  Dickinson  College  were  noted  for  their  attention 
to  applied  sciences.  It  is  noteworthy  that  Thomas 
Cooper,  an  English-trained  chemist  and  friend  of 
Priestley  and  late  a  manufacturing  bleacher  and  dyer 
of  Manchester,  England,  held  successively  the  chairs 
of  applied  science  in  Dickinson  and  the  University  of 
Pennsylvania,  that  at  the  former  place  the  DuPonts 
of  Delaware  were  his  disciples  while  at  the  latter  the 
Pennsylvanians  learned  the  elements  of  soil  analysis 
and  commercial  fertilizers  from  him.  Jefferson  pro- 
posed to  have  teachers  of  agriculture  in  the  University 
of  Virginia,  and  in  this  he  received  support  from 
Madison  and  outspoken  approval  from  Cooper  whom 

13  American  Philosophical  Society,  Early  Proceedings, 
passim. 


he  intended  for  the  "  first  professor  "  of  his  institu- 
tion, and  who  afterwards,  as  President  of  South  Caro- 
lina College,  never  ceased  to  urge  the  matter  of  agri- 
cultural education. 

The  period  from  1807  to  1815  saw  the  foundation 
of  American  manufactures.  It  was  also  the  begin- 
ning of  American  agriculture  in  the  modern  sense. 
About  1810  the  Philadelphia  and  Massachusetts  so- 
cieties became  very  active.  Many  others  were  formed 
and  within  a  few  years  they  were  numbered  by  scores. 
A  study  of  the  printed  memoirs  and  transactions  of 
these  societies  at  once  reveals  the  close  connection  be- 
tween the  new  interest  in  agriculture  and  the  indus- 
trial revolution  then  in  process.  More  than  ever  their 
jjersonnel  included  the  leaders  in  manufacturing, 
commercial  and  public  life.  Philadelphia  was  then 
our  chief  industrial  and  commercial  city,  comparable 
in  a  way  to  Manchester  in  England.  The  Philadel- 
phia Society  extended  its  premiums  to  cover  many  new 
problems  in  agriculture  and  even  to  improvements  in 
household  manufactures.  It  interested  itself  in 
roads,  bridges  and  canals  and  devoted  much  space  to 
them  in  its  memoirs.  From  the  so-called  industrial 
interests  themselves  came  emphatic  proof  of  the  con- 
nection between  agriculture  and  industrial  growth. 
The  "  Emporium  of  Arts  and  Sciences  "  established 
in  1812,  at  Philadelphia  for  the  promotion  of  manu- 
factures devoted  a  liberal  share  of  its  space  to  agri- 
culture, especially  as  related  to  manufactures.  Niles' 
"Weekly  Register,"  established  at  Baltimore  in  1811, 
was  consecrated  to  protection  and  manufactures,  but 
eagerly  published  every  item  of  agricultural  advance. 
The  manufacturing  enthusiasts  rejoiced  over  the  com- 
ing of  the  Spanish  Merinos  even  when  some  agricul- 
tural writers  were  pessimistic  on  the  subject.^*  The 
second  decade  of  the  century  saw  a  swelling  flood  of 
scientific  books  published  in  this  country,  especially 
at  Philadelphia.  Largely  reprints,  revisions  and 
abridgments  of  English  works,  they  brought  to  our 
shores  the  contemporary  English  scientific  thought. 
In  general  applied  science  was  exalted.  In  this 
"  transit  of  civilization  "  agriculture  shared  gener- 
ously. The  agricultural  revolution  in  England  pre- 
ceded the  industrial  revolution,  but  in  the  end  was  in- 
separable from  it.  The  same  thing  is  true  in 
America.  As  in  manufactures  and  transportation  we 
drew  largely  from  England  for  our  modern  begin- 
nings so  in  a  somewhat  less  degree  we  are  indebted  to 
the  mother  country  for  our  agricultural  revolution  in 
its  earlier  stages. 


In  "  The  Yale  Review  "  for  October,  Henry  Osborn  Taylor 
endeavors  to  find  a  reason  for  the  apparent  destiny  which 
drives  unwilling  men,  governments  and  non-combatants  to 
bloody  fighting,  in  his  article  on  "Wisdom  of  Ages."  He 
reaches  no  definite  conclusion  save  "  for  good  and  ill,  the 
war  has  re-energized  individuals  and  nations,"  while  "re- 
straint and  sacrifice  are  needed  still  in  order  to  rationalize 
or  emotionalize  the  currents  of  human  conduct." 

14  Massachusetts  Society,  Vol.  I,  No.  5.  Niles'  Register, 
Vols.  I- VIII. 


